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This Migration Policy Institute event was held to discuss the release of MPI'sbook, Migration and the Great Recession: The Transatlantic Experience, which reviews how the financial and economic crisis of the late 2000s marked a sudden and dramatic interruption in international migration trends, and the effects of the economic turmoil on immigrant workers in major immigrant-receiving countries in Europe as well as the United States. Among the questions posed during the discussion: What will be the legacy of the crisis for immigrant workers and their families in coming years? How have the impacts of the recession on immigrant workers themselves, and responses of publics and politicians, differed on both sides of the Atlantic? Speakers are: volume editors Demetrios Papademetriou, Madeleine Sumption, and Aaron Terrazas, of MPI; Chad Stone, Chief Economist, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; and Gallya Lahav, Associate Professor of Political Science, State University of New York at Stony Brook.

In this webinar, experts and policymakers from Europe and the United States discuss the relationship between immigration, residential segregation, community relations, and economic opportunities. This event concludes a Transatlantic Council on Migration series of papers on how cities and regions in North America and Europe can make the most out of immigration.

During this MPI event on the role of national governments in immigrant integration, MPI President Demetrios G. Papademetriou leads a discussion on the complexities of managing effective immigrant immigration systems.

The discussion includes remarks and discussion from Rosario Farmhouse, High Commissioner for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue in Portugal; Alejandro Mayorkas, Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Jasenko Selimovic, State Secretary to the Minister for Integration in Sweden; Peter Sylvester, Associate Deputy Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

MPI analysts and representatives from London and Detroit discuss the policies and strategies—at national and local levels—to attract immigrants into local economies and the challenges faced in doing so. The discussion focuses on two Transatlantic Council on Migration case studies—Detroit and London—as well as a report on giving cities and regions a voice in immigration policy, and the related Transatlantic Council statement. Presenters address questions such as: How can national immigration policies be designed to be responsive to local human capital needs? What are the risks and opportunities associated with recruiting immigrants as a tool to reverse depopulation? How might “city visas” actually work in practice?

A day-long conference in Brussels, co-sponsored by the International Labour Office and the European Commision’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs, and Inclusion, where panelists discuss the dynamics by which migrants get stuck in low-skilled work, and the role of training and employment services in helping them progress in their occupations. The conference concludes a project and series of reports prepared on the Labor Market Integration of New Arrivals in Europe.

In this panel discussion at MPI, Morten Kjaerum, Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and former Founding Director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, discussed the state of rights protection in Europe as well as his agency’s role in this evolving arena. The FRA’s goal is to promote understanding and secure fundamental rights in the European Union, and the discussion explored the organization’s work collecting and analyzing hard-to-find data, and its strategies for using this to combat discrimination against migrants and other minority populations. Other speakers focused on the evolution of the immigrant-rights movement in the United States, with comments by Lucas Guttentag, Founder and former National Director and Senior Advisor of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project; Wade Henderson, President of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; and Becky Monroe, Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. The speakers discussed shared challenges and opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic, a particularly relevant conversation in light of the loss of human life at Lampedusa and the deportation of a teenage Roma girl seeking asylum in France. The panel was moderated by MPI Senior Vice President Michael Fix.

The Migration Policy Institute has been active in the European immigration debate for nearly a decade. In recognition of MPI's ever closer engagement with immigration policymakers and stakeholders in Europe, MPI Europe has been established in Brussels as a nonprofit research institute dedicated to the promotion of a better understanding of migration. This event marks MPI Europe's official launch in Brussels.

MPI Europe hosts this panel discussion to explore what is driving societal discontent in Europe, the role immigration plays in this, and why there is a growing perception that immigrant integration efforts are failing. Panelists seek to answer some of the key questions posed at the most recent plenary meeting of the Transatlantic Council on Migration, a flagship initiative of the Migration Policy Institute, and reflect on some of the evidence produced for this meeting.

Large-scale immigration has led to unprecedented levels of diversity, transforming communities in fundamental ways and challenging long and closely held notions of national identity. Backlash against immigration has manifested itself in Europe partly through vocal criticism of “multiculturalism,” and in the U.S. as a growing tendency to conflate immigration and illegality. In response, many countries have narrowed rights to residence and citizenship and attempted to more rigidly enforce cultural conformity. These topics are explored in The Relationship Between Immigration and Nativism in Europe and North America. This discussion focuses on factors and players that contribute to this environment, an analysis on the current situation in both Europe and U.S., and a discussion on its implications for community cohesion and national identity in European countries and the U.S.

This event served as a discussion of Talent, Competitiveness, and Migration, the first book from the Transatlantic Council on Migration. MPI President Demetrios G. Papademetriou was joined by Michael S. Teitelbaum, Program Director, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; Carl Haub, Senior Demographer and Conrad Taeuber Chair of Public Information, Population Reference Bureau; and Joseph J. Minarik, Senior Vice President and Director of Research, Committee for Economic Development.

The discussion focused on a number of key issues related to the accumulation of talent that influences both economic growth and migration trends. Panelists also touched on why certain systems have developed as they have, what various systems attempt to accomplish, and expectations for coming years.

Related Media

Migration and Great Recession: The Transatlantic Experience

Unpacking the Links between Segregation, Community Cohesion, and Opportunity: A Transatlantic Discussion

The Role of National Governments in Promoting Immigrant Integration

Giving Cities and Regions a Greater Voice in Immigration Policy

Better Work for Immigrants: Tackling Joblessness and Stunted Progression in the European Union

The Ongoing Challenge of Ensuring Human Rights for Migrants in the European Union and United States

The Chair of the Global Forum on Migration and Development, along with the Special Advisor to the UN Special Representative for International Migration discuss what is expected from The UN High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Development in October 2013 and what impact it may have on the Global Forum on Migration and Development.

Diaspora engagement has become a key and accepted component in the arsenal of development strategies. The question of how to effectively and efficiently harness the force of a country’s diaspora through government intervention and policy remains one that many governments and international organizations must grapple with.

During this online chat, MPI researchers discuss their findings in an MPI brief, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals at the One-Year Mark: A Profile of Currently Eligible Youth and Applicants, that provides the most up-to-date estimates of the current and prospective DACA population by educational attainment, English proficiency, state of residence, country of origin, age, gender, labor force participation, poverty, and parental status.

MPI experts participate in a video chat shortly after the Migration Policy Institute released an analysis comparing the major provisions of the Senate bill to those of the individual House bills considered to date in House committees.

Testimony of Margie McHugh, Co-Director of MPI's National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, U.S. House of Representatives.

At this release event in Washington, DC, co-sponsored by MPI, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and ImmigrationWorks USA, the Chicago Council's independent task force on immigration released its report, U.S. Economic Competitiveness at Risk: A Midwest Call to Action on Immigration Reform.

With global mobility on the rise, the international community is finally grappling with the challenge of stranded migrants, which is one of the main agenda items for the High-level Dialogue on Migration and Development in the UN General Assembly in October 2013.

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Join MPI as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas discusses the application process and policies that the agency has announced to implement the administration’s deferred action program.

MPI is pleased to host a discussion with experts from both KIND and the Women’s Refugee Commission, focusing on the causes of the increase in unaccompanied minor migrants, the situation these minors face once detained or apprehended, and the challenges confronting both nongovernmental organizations trying to provide aid and the U.S. government agencies responsible for processing minors through the system.

The 2012 Global Diaspora Forum challenged diaspora communities to forge partnerships with the private sector, civil society, and public institutions in order to make their engagements with their countries of origin or ancestry effective, scalable, and sustainable.

This discussion highlights the best practices and experiences of different countries in engaging and maximizing the contributions that diasporas can and do make to the development of their country of origin, and more broadly the experience of policymakers in both sending and receiving countries and the related challenges and opportunities they face.

This discussion on the current global challenges of protecting refugees with Volker Türk, who directs UNHCR’s Division of International Protection, and Kathleen Newland, Director of the Refugee Protection Program was organized around three main themes: protection gaps, burden-sharing, and reducing statelessness.

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With global mobility on the rise, the international community is finally grappling with the challenge of stranded migrants, which is one of the main agenda items for the High-level Dialogue on Migration and Development in the UN General Assembly in October 2013.

A panel discussion on the release of the Regional Migration Study Group's final report, Thinking Regionally to Compete Globally: Leveraging Migration & Human Capital in the U.S., Mexico, and Central America, outlining its findings and offering recommendations to policymakers in the region.

With the prospects for immigration reform greater than they have been in more than a decade and the U.S. economy slowly shrugging off the effects of the recession, the United States may be on the cusp of historic changes that make the immigration system a more effective tool for innovation, economic growth and the competitiveness of its firms—large and small.

This discussion covers some of the most difficult issues that must be addressed if the United States is to reform its immigration system in ways that work not only for today’s reality but tomorrow’s future.

A delegation of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) visited Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq in late November to discuss the humanitarian crisis with refugees, officials from host and donor governments, representatives of international humanitarian organizations and local nongovernmental agencies; and to get a firsthand look at the work of IRC partners and staff who are directly involved in providing assistance to the refugees and to Syrians trapped inside the country.

In the Spotlight

Maps of the Foreign Born in the United States

Use our interactive maps, with the latest available data, to learn where immigrant populations, by country or region of birth, live in the United States—at state, county, and metro levels. Interested in the top immigrant populations in your state or metro area? Check out our maps.

Map Immigrants by Origin and Destination

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Use this data tool—referred to as “one addictive interactive map”—to examine immigrant populations by country of origin and destination. Find out how many Americans live in Mexico, how many Ukrainians in Russia, or Filipinos in Saudi Arabia, for example.

As many as 5.2 million unauthorized immigrants could gain relief under new and expanded deferred action programs that President Obama unveiled in November 2014. Check out our U.S. and state breakdowns of the populations that could benefit from the existing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program or new deferred action program for certain parents of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.

Want the latest estimates and characteristics of unauthorized immigrants in the United States, including those potentially eligible for relief from deportation? Use this innovative data tool to get population estimates and much more—including countries of origin, recency of arrival, educational enrollment and attainment, industries of employment, incomes, English proficiency, and health care coverage—at the national level, by state, and for top counties.